E-biz project, one-stop shop for approvals & certificates, takes off

SummaryConvinced that bolstering investments is key to efficient handling of the current complex political-economy, the UPA government has embarked on a many-pronged plan to remove irritants to potential investors and improve the country’s business environment.

The government is holding talks with the Comptroller and Auditor General to get its approval for the state government receipts on payments made by investors to be integrated into the system.

The approval of the CGA – which is in charge of collecting receipts related to the central government – for the project follows a series of discussions that the government had with the department of information technology, the RBI and public sector banks.

The payment gateway will facilitate all payments to be collected at a single window on the portal and then it will be split and transferred to the respective government agencies right up to the local level. The system will also generate challans and MIS reports.

Currently, investors in the country require to take approvals from multiple agencies and the cumbersome procedures force them to often depend on middlemen, besides having to pay numerous visits to different departments and fill multiple forms after poring over many Acts, rules and procedures, all of which lead to delays and huge costs.

No wonder, on the World Bank’s scale of ease of starting a business, India ranked an unflattering 173 among 185 economies.

The e-Biz facility is a big extension of the many other such electronic platforms being created in recent years including the MCA-21 for corporate filings and the integrated facility for direct and indirect tax matters.

The project aims to help businesses and investors right from the start of their operations and through the full life cycle of the business including clearances at the local, state and central levels.

These include for the starting up (approvals, clearances, registrations), operations (filing taxes and returns, compliance and permits), expansion (approvals and submission of compliance), and close of business (clearances and compliance).

"The e-Biz project will allow a radical shift in governance from being department-centric to investor-centric. It aims to achieve horizontal integration across different government verticals, giving the investor the convenience of dealing with all government departments in one portal," say sources.

The investor will get updated information on the required approvals and compliances on the G2B portal, which he can access from anywhere round the clock. He will also get status updates through email and SMS. With the system needing digital signatures, the transactions will be totally secure as per international standards.